<560 


UNIVERSITY  OF  CALIFORNIA 
AT   LOS  ANGELES 


Jimeritmi  '§m^  Qi  mmmmm$  iax  imi^w  glissious. 


DR.    ANDERSON'S 


FAREWELL  TO  THE  MISSIONARIES. 


$)rmtcti  for  jstrictip  pritjatc  a^c. 

186G. 


:•:.*:  •••    •  • 


•  •"  • 


I* •  ••• *  < 


TO    THE    RETURNED     MISSIONARIES    OF    THE 
AMERICAN     BOARD. 


The  Secretaries  desire  to  be  kept  informed  of  your  Post  Office 
address.  If  they  know  where  you  are,  the  Annual  Report,  Ser- 
mon, and  other  occasional  Pamphlets  will  be  sent  you. 


Missionary  Bouse, 
lioston,  Aiiff.  27,  IStiC. 


FAEEWELL    LETTER. 


VS 


^ 


Missionary  House,  Boston, 
July  5,  1866. 

Dear  Brethren: 

On  the  3d  of  February  last,  I  addressed  a  letter 
to  my  brethren   in   the   missions,  stating  my  near 
approach  to  the  age  of  three-score-and-ten,  and  my 
consequent  purpose  to  decline  a  reelection  as  Cor- 
responding Secretary,  at  the  next  annual  meeting 
of  the  Board.      At  the  same  time  I  introduced  to 
you  the  Rev.  Dr.  N.  G.  Clark,  my  colleague  and  in- 
^  tended  successor  in  the  department  of  Foreign  Cor- 
,  respondence.    I  also  intimated  the  hope  that  I  should 
[J  have  the  privilege,  near  the  close  of  the  year,  of 
,  sending   a  few   farewell   words    to   my   missionary 
^  brethren. 

^      My  connection  with  the  missions  began  in  the 
^spring  of  1822 —  forty-four  years  ago.    I  then, in  the 
S  absence  of  Mr.  Evarts,  took  charge  of  the  corre- 
I  spondence,  and  the  editing  of  the  "  Missionary  Her- 
^ald,"  for  six  months  of  my  senior  year  at  Andover. 
My   permanent    connection  with    the   Board   com- 
menced in  the  autumn  of  that  year,  at  first  simply 
1 

404957 


2  DR.  ANDERSON'S 

as  assistant  to  the  Corresponding  Secretary,  and  then 
as  Assistant  Secretary  until  1832,  when  three  coor- 
dinate Corresponding  Secretaries  were  appointed  by 
the  Board,  and  the  department  of  Foreign  Corre- 
spondence was  devolved  on  me.  In  fact,  my  official 
duties  had  from  the  first  been  chiefly  in  that  depart- 
ment. For  thirty-four  years,  therefore,  I  have  had 
the  full  charge  of  the  correspondence  with  the  mis- 
sions beyond  sea. 

The  brethren  and  sisters  now  in  the  field  all  went 
forth  during  my  connection  with  the  Board,  except- 
ing father  and  mother  Spaulding  in  Ceylon,  father 
and  mother  Thurston  at  the  Sandwich  Islands,  and 
fathers  Kingsbury  and  Byington  among  the  Choc- 
taws.  The  whole  number,  male  and  female,  exceeds 
twelve  hundred,  of  whom  more  than  eight  hundred 
went  to  the  missions  beyond  the  seas.  Of  these,  how 
many  have  now  gone  from  earth ;  and  of  how  many 
may  it  be  truly  said,  that  their  "praise  is  in  all  the 
churches."  Glorious  is  their  record  on  high,  and 
most  pleasant  is  the  thought  of  again  meeting  them. 

While  thinking  of  them,  and  of  their  surviving  as- 
sociates, it  is  natural  to  think,  also,  of  what  God  has 
been  pleased  to  do  chiefly  through  their  labors.  By 
no  means  would  I  undervalue  our  missions  as  they 
were  forty-four  years  ago.  They  then  seemed  to 
me,  as  they  now  do,  a  noble  enterprise,  and  the  mis- 
sionaries of  that  early  day  have  never  as  a  body  been 
surpassed.  But  the  missions  were  then  all  in  their  in- 
fancy, and  there  were  only  six  of  them,  with  only  six- 
teen stations.  There  are  now  twenty  missions,  some 
of  them  very  extended,  with  one  hundred  stations. 


FAREWELL  TO  THE  MISSIONARIES.  3 

and  two  hundred  and  forty  out-stations.  The  num- 
ber of  native  preachers  and  catechists  was  then 
very  small,  and  those  were  chiefly  in  Ceylon;  nor 
was  there  then,  nor  for  a  long  time  afterwards,  a  na- 
tive pastor  in  any  one  of  our  missions.  Now,  the 
number  of  licensed  preachers  and  catechists  is  two 
hundred  and  forty-eight,  and  there  are  more  than 
sixty  native  pastors.  We  had  then  twenty-one 
ordained  missionaries  in  the  field ;  four  hundred  and 
fifteen  have  since  gone  forth.  Scarcely  less  than  two 
hundred  churches  have  been  formed,  which  have 
received  more  than  sixty  thousand  hopeful  converts, 
—  about  two  thirds  of  whom  are  supposed  to  be  no 
longer  among  the  living.  The  printing  by  our  mis- 
sion presses  exceeds  a  thousand  millions  of  pages, 
which  have  been  scattered  abroad  in  forty-two  lan- 
guages of  the  unevangelized  world. 

All  this,  as  you  well  know,  is  only  one  item  in  the 
extended  system  of  foreign  missionary  operations. 
The  progress  of  our  Board  has  but  kept  pace  with 
that  of  the  four  great  English  missionary  societies, 
which  began  their  career  before  us.  And  there  are 
not  less  than  two-score  missionary  societies  of  sub- 
sequent origin,  in  different  countries  of  the  Chris- 
tian world,  some  of  which  are  quite  vigorous.  And 
how  has  the  Lord  singularly  prepared  the  way  for 
his  people  to  make  known  his  Gospel  through  the 
earth !  Nearly  the  whole  of  Turkey,  the  Nestorians, 
India,  Burmah,  China,  and  portions  of  Japan  —  all 
closed,  or  nearly  so,  against  the  missionary  forty-four 
years  ago — have  become  accessible;  and  it  is  mat- 
ter for  grateful  surprise  and  joy,  that  so  many  of  the 


4  DR.  ANDERSON'S 

grand  strategic  points  of  the  nnevangelized  world 
are  occupied,  at  this  moment,  by  Protestant  missions. 
Recalling  to  mind  my  contemporaries  and  associates 
that  have  rested  from  their  labors,  whom  shall  I 
name,  since  I  cannot  name  them  all,  and  so  many 
of  them  deserve  to  be  held  in  everlasting  remem- 
brance !  Dr.  Samuel  Worcester,  our  first  Corre- 
sponding Secretary,  died  the  year  before  I  came  to 
Boston  ;  but  I  had  known  him  from  my  early  youth 
as  the  bosom  friend  of  my  honored  father;  and 
I  loved  him,  after  my  father  died  until  his  own  de- 
cease, more  than  I  loved  any  other  living  man.  It 
was  preeminently  he  who  laid  so  well  the  founda- 
tions of  our  missionary  enterprise.  With  his  wor- 
thy coadjutor  and  successor,  Jeremiah  Evarts,  I  was 
associated  eight  years.  Mr.  Evarts's  memory  of 
dates  and  facts  was  very  remarkable,  but  scarcely 
exceeded  the  strength  of  his  judgment,  and  his  men- 
tal self-control.  These  two  men  are  the  most  brill- 
iant stars  in  our  constellation.  Next  to  them  stands 
Samuel  Hubbard,  a  judge  of  the  Supreme  Court  of 
Massachusetts,  twenty-two  years  an  active  member 
of  the  Prudential  Committee,  and  a  most  admirable 
Christian  man.  Of  Presidents,  I  might  speak  of  Gov- 
ernor John  Cotton  Smith,  —  an  inimitable  presid- 
ing officer,  —  and  of  the  greatly  beloved  Theodore 
Frelinghuysen.  Then  there  were  Stephen  Van 
Eensselaer  —  the  Albany  Patroon,  of  singular  sim- 
plicity of  manners — and  Chief  Justice  Thomas  S. 
Williams,  both  Vice-Presidents  of  the  Board,  and 
held  in  the  highest  estimation.  I  might  mention  the 
Hon.  William  Reed,  Dr.  Leonard  Woods,  Governor 


FAREWELL  TO  THE  MISSIONARIES.  5 

Samuel  T.  Armstrong,  and  also  younger  men,  all 
valued  members  of  our  Prudential  Committee,  but 
released  from  the  cares  of  earth — some  of  them 
many  years  ago.  Nor  must  I  fail  to  speak  of  other 
associates  in  the  correspondence.  The  Rev.  David 
Greene,  my  fellow-laborer  for  a  score  of  years,  was 
an  able  and  faithful  servant  of  the  Lord  Jesus.  Dr. 
Benjamin  B.  Wisner,  for  several  years  our  Home 
Secretary,  was  eminently  endowed  for  the  duties  of 
that  office,  but  died  in  the  prime  and  beauty  of  his 
age.  So  did  the  eloquent  and  beloved  Dr.  Elias 
Cornelius,  elected  Secretary  of  the  Board,  but  not 
allowed  time  to  place  so  much  as  his  foot  upon  the 
official  threshold.  And  so  also  did  Dr.  William  J. 
Armstrong,  Home  Secretary  for  twelve  years,  whose 
active  and  ardent  career  was  suddenly  closed  in  the 
wreck  of  the  steamer  Atlantic. 

In  a  review  of  the  past,  gratitude  is  perhaps  my 
predominant  feeling.  To  have  .been  intrusted  with 
such  a  correspondence,  and  for  so  long  a  time,  and 
with  agreeable  and  excellent  fellow-laborers  and 
companions ;  to  have  had  so  few  misunderstandings 
with  my  brethren  at  home  and  abroad,  and  so 
much  mutual  confidence  and  love;  to  have  been 
allowed  to  visit  so  many  of  the  missions,  most  of 
them  once,  and  several  more  than  once ;  and  now  to 
be  permitted  to  retire  from  my  office  assured  that  I 
have  the  confidence  and  affection  of  my  brethren 
and  sisters  in  the  field ; — this,  when  I  think  how  un- 
deserving I  am  of  such  blessings  from  the  hand  of 
God,  is  almost  overpowering;  and  I  cannot  but  ad- 
mire the  sovereign  goodness  of  Him  who  has  been 
pleased  to  extend  such  mercy  toward  me. 


6  DR.   ANDERSON'S 

I  know  the  reality  of  my  love  for  my  brethren 
and  sisters  in  the  missions ;  and  I  am  sure  that  no 
other  associated  body  of  Christian  men  and  women 
is  more  worthy  of  esteem  and  love.  In  common 
with  my  associates,  I  deeply  sympathize  with  the 
missions  in  their  diminished  numbers,  as  a  conse- 
quence of  our  late  civil  war,  and  in  the  increasing 
weight  of  their  cares  and  labors  j  and  the  more,  as  I 
do  not  see  an  immediate  prospect  of  relief  We 
share  in  your  trials,  and  can  almost  say,  with  the 
holy  Apostle,  "that  ye  are  in  our  hearts  to  die  and 
live  with  you."  Sure  I  am,  that  for  many  years  I 
have  rejoiced  in  your  joys  and  sorrowed  in  your  sor- 
rows, though  multiplied  cares  have  often  prevented 
my  giving  you  this  assurance. 

I  must  not  omit  to  speak  of  your  children  returned 
to  this  country.  One  of  my  earliest  essays  in  argu- 
mentative letters  to  Missions,  was  on  this  subject,  to 
the  brethren  in  Ceylon.  Whether  I  was  right  in  my 
positions,  or  wrong,  I  then  became  deeply  interested 
in  the  difficult  questions  relating  to  missionary  chil- 
dren, and  have  been  so  ever  since.  In  my  private 
memorandum-book  for  the  Returned  Children,  with 
a  page  devoted  to  each,  I  have  now  four  hundred 
and  eighty-two  names.  My  information  is  yet  in- 
complete ;  but  if  life  and  health  be  spared  for  a 
couple  of  years,  I  hope  to  have  an  ample  basis  of 
facts  for  some  very  interesting  practical  conclusions. 

I  am  humbled  when  I  reflect  upon  the  many  short- 
comings in  my  official  life ;  but  I  trust  the  Master, 
in  his  long-suffering  mercy,  has  forgiven  me,  and  I 
thank  you  for  your  forbearance  and  indulgent  kind- 
ness. 


FAREWELL   TO   THE  MISSIONARIES.  7 

The  office  of  Secretary,  whether  in  the  Foreign 
or  Home  Department,  is  loaded  down  with  respon- 
sibilities, labors,  perplexities,  and  cares,  not  to  be 
sustained  save  through  the  grace  of  God.  The  Sec- 
retary, not  less  than  his  missionary  brethren,  needs 
the  presence  of  his  divine  Lord ;  and  that  presence, 
in  the  fulfillment  of  the  Great  Promise,  I  believe 
both  you  and  I  have  enjoyed.  I  certainly  have 
been  conscious  of  it  in  not  a  few  of  my  official  per- 
plexities and  sorrows,  in  many  an  ocean  voyage, 
and  in  many  a  foreign  land. 

I  have  never  had  stronger  assurance  of  the  value 
and  of  the  ultimate  triumph  of  the  missionary  cause, 
than  I  have  now.  Never  indeed  was  my  confidence 
so  strong  as  at  present.  For,  I  am  now  looking  back 
as  one  putting  off  his  armor,  and  can  do  it  with 
something  like  the  calmness  of  a  spectator,  yet  with 
the  feelings  of  one  who  has  been  long  in  the  conflict, 
and  sometimes  in  the  thickest  of  the  fight.  What 
at  the  time  seemed  to  me  like  shouts  of  victory,  I 
now  know  to  have  been  such,  and  that  ours  is  a  tri- 
umphing army.  I  see,  too,  great  progress  in  our 
knowledge  of  the  enemy's  strength,  of  the  dispo- 
sition of  his  forces,  and  of  the  ground  for  which  we 
are  contending;  and  also  in  the  materials  for  our 
holy  warfare,  in  the  experience  and  discipline  of  our 
forces,  in  skill  and  confidence  on  the  battle-field,  and 
in  the  conviction  "that  they  that  be  with  us,  are 
more  than  they  that  be  with  them."  I  have  seen  the 
wonder-working  providence  of  God  opening  nearly 
the  whole  of  the  heathen  world  to  the  Gospel;  the 
Word   of  God   translated    into    languages    spoken 


8  DR.   ANDERSON'S 

by  far  the  largest  portion  of  the  unevangelized 
nations;  and  many  a  benighted  region  lighted  up 
with  gospel  missions,  much  as  the  promenades  and 
parks  of  our  great  cities  are  lighted  up  at  night. 
Though  night  is  not  thereby  converted  into  day,  the 
wayfarer  finds  his  path  illuminated,  and  goes  on  his 
way  rejoicing.  Thus  it  is  in  large  portions  of  West- 
ern Asia,  Africa,  and  India,  in  several  of  the  maritime 
districts  of  China,  and  in  many  a  group  of  islands  in 
the  Pacific  Ocean. 

I  by  no  means  believe  that  we  have  learned  all 
that  experience  can  teach  respecting  economy  in 
the  working  of  foreign  missions;  but  I  am  confi- 
dent that  there  has  been  great  progress  in  that  di- 
rection under  the  divine  guidance.  How  much  more 
entire  is  our  reliance,  now,  on  those  agencies  which 
are  strictly  spiritual ;  how  much  higher  the  estimate 
we  put  upon  a  native  ministry ;  and  how  vast  the 
consequent  reduction  in  our  estimate  of  the  cost  of  the 
world's  conversion.  I  can  only  allude  to  this  subject. 
The  churches,  the  missions,  and  we  too,  have  been 
slow  of  apprehension  in  these  matters ;  but  who  can 
fail  to  see  that  the  missionary  work  has  been  grad- 
ually approaching  the  simplicity  of  the  apostolic 
missions,  which  knew  nothing,  among  the  heathen, 
"save  Jesus  Christ  and  him  crucified?  "  Yet  I  feel 
assured,  that  the  tone  and  substance  of  our  preach- 
ing have  been  the  same  from  the  beginning.  We 
have  preached  the  same  Gospel  with  the  Apostle 
Paul.  We  have  proclaimed  salvation  through  the 
blood  of  the  Lamb. 

The  long  and  pleasant  correspondence  between  us, 


FAREWELL  TO   THE  MISSIONARIES.  9 

beloved  brethren  and  sisters,  will  soon  close  for  the 
present  life.  But  I  joyfully  anticipate  that  we  shall 
be  co-workers  beyond  the  grave,  in  the  everlasting 
kingdom  of  the  Messiah,  which  must  needs  afford 
eternal  scope  for  all  our  powers.  Next  to  the  antici- 
pated joy  of  meeting  the  Saviour,  is  that  of  meeting 
the  thousands  of  converts,  and  of  once  more  saluting 
our  co-workers  in  the  missions,  who  have  finished 
their  course  on  earth.  What  will  be  the  joy  in  asso- 
ciating with  them  and  with  the  dearly  beloved 
brethren  and  sisters  now  in  the  field,  as  fellow-labor- 
ers anywhere  in  the  wide  regions  of  heavenly  bliss  ! 
Heaven,  in  my  apprehension  of  it,  is  the  loyal  and 
holy  kingdom  of  our  divine  Lord. 

I  have  had  much  satisfaction,  during  past  months, 
in  gradually  transferring  my  responsibilities,  as 
your  official  correspondent,  to  my  esteemed  and 
valued  colleague.  Dr.  Clark.  I  doubt  not  you  will 
find  him  an  efficient  and  satisfactory  helper  in  your 
great  work.  At  the  age  of  forty,  his  judgment  is  of 
course  matured  ;  and  being  thirty  years  my  junior, 
he  will  be  better  able,  than  I  now  am,  to  give  atten- 
tion to  the  multifarious  details  in  our  department  of 
the  business.  I  may  be  near  at  hand  a  while  longer, 
should  life  and  health  be  spared,  to  give  him  aid 
when  needed.  I  feel  assured  of  his  ability  and  dis- 
position to  serve  you,  and  bespeak  for  him  your  con- 
fidence and  affection.  He  will  have  the  able  coop- 
eration of  his  respected  associates, —  including  of 
course  the  Prudential  Committee,  a  body  of  men  dis- 
tinguished for  their  soundness  of  judgment  and  their 
fidelity  in  attendance  on  their  weekly  meetings. 

2 

40495  ;• 


10  DR.  ANDERSON'S 

Though  retiring  from  present  official  responsibil- 
ities, I  by  no  means  expect  to  be  less  really  devoted 
to  the  missionary  work  than  I  have  been.  How  far 
I  shall  be  able  to  carry  out  my  present  plans,  is 
known  only  to  God.  But  I  trust  He  will  enable  me 
to  give  a  somewhat  extended  and  correct  practical 
exhibit  of  the  missionary  enterprise,  in  a  series  of 
lectures  I  have  been  requested  to  prepare  and  deliver 
in  one  of  our  oldest  theological  seminaries.  The 
other  work  I  have  had  in  mind  may  perhaps  require 
more  vigor  and  discrimination  than  I  shall  have  at 
command ;  but  I  am  favored  as  to  health,  and  for 
some  years  have  had  an  earnest  desire  to  prepare  a 
volume  on  the  instructive,  and  in  some  respects 
remarkable,  experiences  of  the  Board  and  its  mis- 
sions, during  the  time  I  have  occupied  the  post  so 
advantageous  for  observation. 

Finally,  brethren  and  sisters,  farewell.  "Be  per- 
fect ;  be  of  good  comfort ;  be  of  one  mind ;  live  in 
peace ;  and  the  God  of  love  and  peace  shall  be  with 
you ; "  "  and  the  very  God  of  peace  sanctify  you 
wholly ;  and  I  pray  God  your  whole  spirit  and  soul 
and  body  be  preserved  blameless  unto  the  coming  of 
our  Lord  Jesus  Christ."  Give  my  love  and  best 
wishes  to  the  native  brethren  who  remember  me. 
May  all  of  them  have  grace  to  be  faithful  unto  death. 
Again,  I  say  farewell ;  but  with  the  cheerful  expec- 
tation of  meeting  you  where  God  shall  wipe  all  tears 
from  our  eyes,  and  fill  us  with  the  joy  of  a  perfect 
salvation,  through  the  atonement  and  grace  of  our 
Lord  Jesus  Christ.     Amen. 

My  dear  wife,  who   for  almost  forty  years  has 


FAREWELL   TO   THE  MISSIONARIES.  11 

shared  with  me  the  pleasure  of  welcoming  you  to 
our  house,  and  of  meeting  you  at  our  missionary 
gatherings  elsewhere,  and  who  has  ever  cherished 
the  tenderest  interest  in  your  welfare,  unites  with 
me  in  these  salutations ;  and  I  am,  as  ever,  your  af- 
fectionate brother  and  co-laborer  in  the  Gospel. 

R.  ANDERSON, 

Foreign  Secretary  of  the  Board. 

P.  S.  It  will  of  course  be  in  order  for  you,  if  so 
disposed,  to  address  me  in  my  official  capacity,  up 
to  the  time  of  the  Board's  annual  meeting.  As  an 
old  and  interested  friend,  1  shall  ever  be  pleased 
to  hear  from  you ;  and  there  may  be  points  to  be 
illustrated  in  our  history,  on  which  I  shall  need,  and 
shall  presume  to  ask,  your  kind  assistance. 


UNIVERSITY  OF  CALIFORNIA,  LOS  ANr^FTES 


University  of  California 

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